House Republicans have a little-known plan to raise taxes on teachers by $2 billion

More taxes being raised on the lower classes. This time teachers are the target, what a surprise?

Richardson estimates she spent $500 of her own money on her students last year. She says it's worth it — her voice lights up talking about
“her kids” and all their “aha moments,” many of which come when she deviates from the textbook.

But what has also been helpful is that she's able to deduct $250 off her taxable income for the extras she buys for her classroom, a small help that
Congress created in 2002 for teachers who “go above and beyond.”

Now, the educator expense deduction has become a sticking point in the GOP tax debate, with the House and Senate taking it in two wildly different
directions.

The House GOP tax bill would scrap that educator deduction entirely.

The Senate GOP tax plan would double it to $500.

What's the reason for this? Seriously? Teachers like Ms Richardson over here go above and beyond the call of duty for the sake of education, for the
less fortunate kids. People like her do the community a service, unknown heroes, and yet she now has to suffer so the wealthy get a fatter paycheck.
She needs to stand where the wealth will trickle right?

For those who keep on stating nearly half of Americans pay no income taxes, they still pay other forms of taxes that take a significant chunk
out of their already lowely incomes:

That doesn’t mean half of Americans pay no taxes, however. That’s because income tax isn’t the only type of tax. Other taxes, like sales
taxes and the payroll tax, are regressive. The relatively poor, who have can’t afford to save as much and who make a larger share of their income
from wages, pay more of what they make in sales and payroll taxes. The payroll tax applies only to the first $106,800 of a person’s wages in any
case, so if you make you more than that you don’t pay any payroll tax on any income beyond that amount. When you consider all the different types of
federal taxes together, the effective tax rate on the rich is still higher than on the poor, but not that dramatically. The Tax Policy Center
calculates that in 2010 the average American, who made around $46,000 a year, paid 14% of their income in taxes. Someone in the top 1% of all
earners—a group whose median income is over $800,000—paid on average about 26% of their income in taxes.

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
More taxes being raised on the lower classes. This time teachers are the target, what a surprise?

Richardson estimates she spent $500 of her own money on her students last year. She says it's worth it — her voice lights up talking about
“her kids” and all their “aha moments,” many of which come when she deviates from the textbook.

But what has also been helpful is that she's able to deduct $250 off her taxable income for the extras she buys for her classroom, a small help that
Congress created in 2002 for teachers who “go above and beyond.”

Now, the educator expense deduction has become a sticking point in the GOP tax debate, with the House and Senate taking it in two wildly different
directions.

The House GOP tax bill would scrap that educator deduction entirely.

The Senate GOP tax plan would double it to $500.

What's the reason for this? Seriously? Teachers like Ms Richardson over here go above and beyond the call of duty for the sake of education, for the
less fortunate kids. People like her do the community a service, unknown heroes, and yet she now has to suffer so the wealthy get a fatter paycheck.
She needs to stand where the wealth will trickle right?

For those who keep on stating nearly half of Americans pay no income taxes, they still pay other forms of taxes that take a significant chunk
out of their already lowely incomes:

That doesn’t mean half of Americans pay no taxes, however. That’s because income tax isn’t the only type of tax. Other taxes, like sales
taxes and the payroll tax, are regressive. The relatively poor, who have can’t afford to save as much and who make a larger share of their income
from wages, pay more of what they make in sales and payroll taxes. The payroll tax applies only to the first $106,800 of a person’s wages in any
case, so if you make you more than that you don’t pay any payroll tax on any income beyond that amount. When you consider all the different types of
federal taxes together, the effective tax rate on the rich is still higher than on the poor, but not that dramatically. The Tax Policy Center
calculates that in 2010 the average American, who made around $46,000 a year, paid 14% of their income in taxes. Someone in the top 1% of all
earners—a group whose median income is over $800,000—paid on average about 26% of their income in taxes.

The people are being screwed by DC through this tax plan and yet many continue to keep their heads in the sand. All for the sake of partisan
politics.

This is total propaganda.

The plan eliminates tons of minor deductions like this one to simplify the filing process - but what it does in it's place is increase the general
deduction by almost double to compensate for eliminating these specialized deductions.

These teachers will still come out ahead with the new plan in almost every circumstance.

I am so sick of the democrats finding one small group - in this case teachers - make them out to be victims by twisting the truth as an emotional
appeal to uniformed people who actually believe the Republicans hate said group and are targeting them.

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
More taxes being raised on the lower classes. This time teachers are the target, what a surprise?

Richardson estimates she spent $500 of her own money on her students last year. She says it's worth it — her voice lights up talking about
“her kids” and all their “aha moments,” many of which come when she deviates from the textbook.

But what has also been helpful is that she's able to deduct $250 off her taxable income for the extras she buys for her classroom, a small help that
Congress created in 2002 for teachers who “go above and beyond.”

Now, the educator expense deduction has become a sticking point in the GOP tax debate, with the House and Senate taking it in two wildly different
directions.

The House GOP tax bill would scrap that educator deduction entirely.

The Senate GOP tax plan would double it to $500.

What's the reason for this? Seriously? Teachers like Ms Richardson over here go above and beyond the call of duty for the sake of education, for the
less fortunate kids. People like her do the community a service, unknown heroes, and yet she now has to suffer so the wealthy get a fatter paycheck.
She needs to stand where the wealth will trickle right?

For those who keep on stating nearly half of Americans pay no income taxes, they still pay other forms of taxes that take a significant chunk
out of their already lowely incomes:

That doesn’t mean half of Americans pay no taxes, however. That’s because income tax isn’t the only type of tax. Other taxes, like sales
taxes and the payroll tax, are regressive. The relatively poor, who have can’t afford to save as much and who make a larger share of their income
from wages, pay more of what they make in sales and payroll taxes. The payroll tax applies only to the first $106,800 of a person’s wages in any
case, so if you make you more than that you don’t pay any payroll tax on any income beyond that amount. When you consider all the different types of
federal taxes together, the effective tax rate on the rich is still higher than on the poor, but not that dramatically. The Tax Policy Center
calculates that in 2010 the average American, who made around $46,000 a year, paid 14% of their income in taxes. Someone in the top 1% of all
earners—a group whose median income is over $800,000—paid on average about 26% of their income in taxes.

The people are being screwed by DC through this tax plan and yet many continue to keep their heads in the sand. All for the sake of partisan
politics.

This is total propaganda.

The plan eliminates tons of minor deductions like this one to simplify the filing process - but what it does in it's place is increase the general
deduction by almost double to compensate for eliminating these specialized deductions.

These teachers will still come out ahead with the new plan in almost every circumstance.

I am so sick of the democrats finding one small group - in this case teachers - make them out to be victims by twisting the truth as an emotional
appeal to uniformed people who actually believe the Republicans hate said group and are targeting them.

Pretty sad how people like the OP get duped...

The other thing is why do teachers need a special deduction? Anyone can already write off "unreimbursed employment expenses". I usually have a few
thousand a year in expenses related to my job that my employer doesn't pay for that I can write off (training, entertainment, etc).

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
More taxes being raised on the lower classes. This time teachers are the target, what a surprise?

Richardson estimates she spent $500 of her own money on her students last year. She says it's worth it — her voice lights up talking about
“her kids” and all their “aha moments,” many of which come when she deviates from the textbook.

But what has also been helpful is that she's able to deduct $250 off her taxable income for the extras she buys for her classroom, a small help that
Congress created in 2002 for teachers who “go above and beyond.”

Now, the educator expense deduction has become a sticking point in the GOP tax debate, with the House and Senate taking it in two wildly different
directions.

The House GOP tax bill would scrap that educator deduction entirely.

The Senate GOP tax plan would double it to $500.

What's the reason for this? Seriously? Teachers like Ms Richardson over here go above and beyond the call of duty for the sake of education, for the
less fortunate kids. People like her do the community a service, unknown heroes, and yet she now has to suffer so the wealthy get a fatter paycheck.
She needs to stand where the wealth will trickle right?

For those who keep on stating nearly half of Americans pay no income taxes, they still pay other forms of taxes that take a significant chunk
out of their already lowely incomes:

That doesn’t mean half of Americans pay no taxes, however. That’s because income tax isn’t the only type of tax. Other taxes, like sales
taxes and the payroll tax, are regressive. The relatively poor, who have can’t afford to save as much and who make a larger share of their income
from wages, pay more of what they make in sales and payroll taxes. The payroll tax applies only to the first $106,800 of a person’s wages in any
case, so if you make you more than that you don’t pay any payroll tax on any income beyond that amount. When you consider all the different types of
federal taxes together, the effective tax rate on the rich is still higher than on the poor, but not that dramatically. The Tax Policy Center
calculates that in 2010 the average American, who made around $46,000 a year, paid 14% of their income in taxes. Someone in the top 1% of all
earners—a group whose median income is over $800,000—paid on average about 26% of their income in taxes.

The people are being screwed by DC through this tax plan and yet many continue to keep their heads in the sand. All for the sake of partisan
politics.

Considering the outlandish retirement pensions teachers get around here, I say screw them. They most certainly don't need a tax break. Teacher
pensions are like the equivalent of someone having a multi-million dollar retirement package.

Sorry all you Teachers can do no wrong people. The teaching profession is a racket. Teachers are spoiled far worse than their students. The
teachers union has ruined that profession.... period.
The use children to enrich themselves and are always one increase in spending away from putting out highly educated students...... if only we had just
a little more money. But somehow the only thing that grows is the bureaucracy. www.youtube.com...

I do taxes for quite a few teachers and retired teachers. I've yet to meet a poor retired teacher. I have one client who makes more in retirement than
they did working. Teachers for the most part have excellent retirement packages.

I do taxes for quite a few teachers and retired teachers. I've yet to meet a poor retired teacher. I have one client who makes more in retirement than
they did working. Teachers for the most part have excellent retirement packages.

is this a tax problem? hell my first issue is the fact that for some reason teachers are expected to spend their own money in the first place.
the fact there even exists a special tax write off for teachers buying supplies shows there is a big problem. it really does show just how screwed up
education is. perhaps instead of worrying about how teachers may loose part of this tax write off, we should be more concerned that they need to buy
stuff in the first place. seems we really need to fix the real problem, not the Band-Aid solution.

I do taxes for quite a few teachers and retired teachers. I've yet to meet a poor retired teacher. I have one client who makes more in retirement than
they did working. Teachers for the most part have excellent retirement packages.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.